Ernests Gulbis' performance Tuesday was easily the best of the young Latvian's career.

ROME — Ernests Gulbis has pulled of one the biggest triumphs of his career, defeating Roger Federer 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 Tuesday at the 2010 Internazionali BNL d’Italia tournament in Rome.

Playing the world no. 1 for the second time in 2010 “The Gull” could not rely on the element of surprise this time round, with Federer knowing what he was up against.

Gulbis looked edgy early on, with the unforced errors that had plagued his 2009 season sneaking back into play in the first set here today.

Playing singles on clay for the first time this season, Federer wasted no time pouncing, breaking the Latvian on his first service game before going on to break him once more cruising to an easy 6-2 first set victory.

But anyone that has followed Gulbis this season would know that his approach has changed, with his mental game now matching his physical.

Undeterred, he came out firing in the second set to shock his Swiss opponent, taking him to break point on five occasions and converting on two of them to take the second set 6-1.

The thoughts of many would have been going back to the January encounter between the two which had followed an eerily similar pattern. On that occasion Gulbis had handed the third set to Federer with simple errors.

But it appeared early on that he had learned from the experience, remaining resolute on his own serve while attacking Federer’s. The tactic paid off, breaking the Swiss on his third serve handing him a big advantage.

With Federer serving to stay in the match at 3-5, 15-40 down Gulbis was handed his first two big opportunities. However he on was unable to convert on either as Federer was able to hang on, leaving Gulbis serving to win the match.

But the moment got to the Latvian as his game come undone. Up 40-15, both of his match points were blown by simple errors, serving his first double fault of the game then lobbing a simple return long.

At deuce the Latvian had a further two chances but again he wilted under the pressure serving another double fault and sending another return shot long.

What would have been of further concern to Gulbis was the fact that he was the one making the errors, with Federer simply returning the ball.

At this moment, all momentum was back with Federer with everyone thinking the Latvian had done his dash.  But he was not done yet.

For the second time in the set Gulbis was able to break the serve of Federer, again finding himself serving for the match.

This time Gulbis was not going to blow it, giving himself a further three match points. In the end only one was needed as Federer finally made an error of his own, seeing Gulbis finally achieve what many had been predicting since 2008.

The path is now a little simpler for Gulbis meeting either the Italian Filippo Volandri or Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the next round, neither of which he has played before.

This article is free to view. To read Baltic Reports’ subscription-only articles, click here.